


Sweetener

by MoonlightShines (Thatkillervibe)



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Bad Weather, Birthday, Cooking, F/M, Fluff, Inspired by an Ariana Grande Song, Love Confessions, Sixteen candles - Freeform, Sweetener, and baking, cuteness, midnight snacks, sorta - Freeform, this is very cutesy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-18
Updated: 2018-08-18
Packaged: 2019-06-29 09:08:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,583
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15726330
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thatkillervibe/pseuds/MoonlightShines
Summary: Caitlin has had enough weird in her life. Cisco was supposed to be the part that never got complicated.So why was he being so weird tonight?





	Sweetener

**Author's Note:**

> This spiraled out of control after listening to Ariana Grande's new album one time too many.

Caitlin was dripping wet when she rang Cisco’s doorbell. She shook her umbrella closed, sighing in resignation at the way her previously perfectly straightened hair was clinging in wavy clumps to the back of her sweatshirt, probably a staticy mess. Caitlin stood for all of two minutes before she grew impatient. There were puddles in her boots. No way was she catching a cold waiting for Cisco to open the door when she had her own set of keys somewhere buried in a pocket of her purse.

 

It was almost ten PM on the third Friday of the month. Also known as C&CCC. An acronym Cisco came up with the third week in a row Caitlin showed up with her electric mixer and semi-sweet baker’s chocolate to get Cisco to stop moping on his couch after his breakup with Cynthia. That was nearly a year ago now, Cisco was well over her, but baking and cooking late at night with each other became so fun they didn’t want it to end.

 

So. C&CCC. The Cisco and Caitlin Cooking Craze.

 

It wasn’t so much a craze as it was them bickering until midnight on what to actually make, then splitting both ideas they ultimately made too much of on the couch while binge watching shows.

 

“Cisco?” Caitlin called, toeing off her boots and then her squelching socks in the foyer and walking into his house, following the muted music from the kitchen. She placed her reusable bag with her appliances and her borrowed casserole dish on the floor and leaned against the door. She folded her arms against the still damp sweatshirt across her chest, quirking an eyebrow.

 

Cisco was completely oblivious to her, back turned, in the middle of what looked like an epic dance battle with a ghost.

 

Caitlin wrinkled her nose at his outrageous taste in music. It was one of Ariana Grande’s new songs. Caitlin liked the artist just fine, but she and Barry both grew exasperated at STAR LABS hearing the high pitched songs blasted on repeat when H.R. was still around and henceforth they banned her songs from their work playlist.

 

_Hit it, hit it, hit it_

_Flip it, flip it, flip it,_

_Twist it, twist it, twist it_

_Mix it, and mix it, and mix it._

 

Cisco was working on ‘whipping it’ to the bass and Caitlin was glad the curtains were closed. She would be utterly mortified if he pulled that move out in the club. Again.

 

“Hi,” She said eventually, waving when Cisco turned. He startled so violently he fell onto his ass.

 

“Caitlin!” He gasped, taking her hand as she peeled him off his questionably clean kitchen tiles.

 

“I rang the doorbell, but you were too busy tripping it and whipping it.”   


“It’s ‘Twist and Mix’, but you know what, I don’t see how that’s helping me right now,” Cisco smiled sheepishly, scratching his head. He laughed and took out his phone to mute the music. When he looked up at her he frowned.  
  
“Hey your face is wet--Were you crying?”   


Caitlin rolled her eyes, and wiped the water from off her face. “It’s pouring outside, Cisco.”   


“What?” Cisco exclaimed, running to his window and peeking his head under the blinds for confirmation, “You should’ve called me. I would’ve breached you here. And you’re kinda early.”

 

Caitlin shrugged. The truth was, she took the bus. It was something normal and she liked it. Sometimes things in her life got too shook up. The Flash and evil metas and split personalities taking over her life. Riding the bus and sitting next to ordinary people instead of being teleported by your best friend was just something a woman sometimes needed.

 

“It’s no big deal,” she assured him, and went to his bookcase to pick out a cookbook.

 

He had a lot of them. It was fun to discover that Cisco could cook. He wasn’t a helpless bachelor in the kitchen like Ronnie was. He had at least twenty recipe books, including a worn binder with handwritten laminated pages of special dishes important to his family. Sudado de pollo, Chuleta Valluna, rice with types of spices Caitlin has never heard of before, and of course the Ramon coveted hot chocolate. It was eons better than Joe’s West family cocoa, but Caitlin and Cisco were both respectful enough to never voice those opinions out loud.

 

Caitlin wasn’t awful at cooking either, but she was better at baking. Scones and cookies and breads that were actually good for you. She got amazing recipes from her roommate in college who became a nutritionist instead of a doctor.

 

“What are you in the mood for?” She mused, skimming past Nigella Lawson and Jamie Oliver on the bookshelf. She paused at Cat Cora, turning her head over her shoulder and wiping a stray strand of hair from her mouth. Cisco hadn’t said anything yet which was weird because usually he would’ve already come up with four insanely sugary foods that Caitlin would veto by now.

 

“I actually already made dinner.”

 

He pointed to his counter, and sure enough, the kitchen looked like a tornado zone. Cisco’s sink was piled high with bowls and measuring cups and there seemed to be something in the oven.

 

“Oh,” she said, unsure of what else to say. She was surprised at how deeply she felt  disappointed.

 

“It’s not that I couldn’t wait!” Cisco was quick to explain, “I just wanted to do something different. For you.”

 

“Well as long as I make dessert, then I guess it’s even.”

 

“That’s already taken care of too.”

 

Caitlin deflated a little. Obviously Cisco was trying to do something nice, she guessed, but it sort of ruined what C&CCC was all about. Ranting about the meta of the day, and then complaining about Ralph, and then getting stupidly competitive over whose dish tasted the best.

 

Caitlin’s favourite C&CCC was the one they threw right before baby Jenna’s welcome to the world party. She was baking cupcakes while Cisco was trying to make sliders in the shape of baby bottles and he got so meticulous about cutting the hamburger buns just so, that she got fed up and threw flour at him. They ended up having to mop down Cisco’s entire kitchen two hours later due to a food fight Caitlin would never in a million years admit to having started.

 

Being together flushed in aprons was just part of the fun. They watched TV and movies together all the time--In fact, they hung out all the time too. It was just, and maybe these were signs that Caitlin was needy, but she really liked the significance behind being invited to learn to cook Cisco’s family’s sacred meals. She was the one who knew how long to roast his garlic chicken, not Cynthia, or Barry or anyone else. It was her. Just like how he was the only person who got her father’s lava cake recipe. The one he helped her find in the box of her father’s literature she refused to touch until six months ago.

 

So maybe it wasn’t the end of the world that they didn’t get to cook or bake together. That they’d just enjoy whatever Cisco was making in front of the TV, and break tradition. Whatever. So what.

 

Gosh, Caitlin sounded like a spoiled brat.

 

She frowned, and reached for the reusable bag. Metal clanged together as she picked it up and its contents shook around. “Are you sure...I brought my cookie cutters.”

 

“Sorry Cait,” He said, but he did take his casserole dish back when she offered it.

 

“Wow, this is clean. You use Dawn, right? I should probably switch from the generic brands.”

 

Take Cisco to make commentary on dish soap. Caitlin nodded, rattling her cookie cutters. “Are you positive you don’t want sugar cookies?”

 

Cisco rubbed her shoulder affectionately, “Yeah, I’m sure. I have Greys cued up on the PVR.”

 

Cisco always loved watching Greys with Caitlin because of how intensely she analyzed every medical condition tackled on the show. Quite honestly, Caitlin caught him staring at her more times than he did Meredith.

 

“The food will take another half hour. Did you have supper?”

 

Caitlin’s stomach answered for her. No--She had a few snacks, but she waited for tonight. Cisco grinned, “Great.”

 

“What is it?” She started to walk towards the oven but Cisco twisted her around and ushered her down the hallway in the opposite direction.

 

“No no no,” He said, “You don’t get to see it until it’s done.”

 

“Yeah, okay,” She said, trying not to sound like someone rained on her parade.

 

She sat on his couch in his living room, and grimaced at how wet her sleeves were still from the rain outside. She rolled them so that the ends were now tucked into itself and the greyish fuzz from the inside made little cuffs around her elbows. She glanced over her shoulder. She didn’t feel like watching Greys. Greys was for when it was two in the morning and they were falling asleep with their plates on their laps like slobs. She pulled out her phone and scrolled through Instagram.

 

Why was Cisco making her dinner anyways? Caitlin sat up straight. Guys don’t do that normally, right? They don’t just make their best girl friend dinner late at night just because. But again, this was Cisco, and she was Caitlin. Their history pretty much chucked all conventions out the window. It wasn’t that Caitlin cared. She was just confused. She _wanted_   to cook. She felt put out. She didn’t like sitting in the den while Cisco was all mysterious. It was weird.

 

Caitlin has had enough weird in her life. Cisco was supposed to be the part that never got complicated. 

 

Cisco turned his music back on.

 

_Hit it, hit it, hit it_

_Flip it, flip it, flip it,_

_Twist it, twist it, twist it_

_Mix it, and mix it, and mix it._

 

This time he was singing to it.

 

“I can hear you!” She yelled from across the house.

 

“Why are you complaining? This is my place and I know you like my voice!”

 

Caitlin chuckled and flicked the TV on. He had a point.

 

Netflix began to load as Caitlin drew her knees to her chest. She rested her head against the plush cushion and fell asleep. 

 

Cisco was brushing the hair out of her face when she jerked awake.

 

“Hey,” he soothed, “it’s ready. Tired, huh?”

 

Caitlin yawned in response.

 

“I can set the table,” she decided, but Cisco took her hand and pulled her away from his cupboard. “Already done.”

 

Caitlin squinted at the bare dining table. “Where?” She questioned him, growing more confused by the minute.

 

For the first time, Cisco seemed to radiate a less mysterious energy and a more fidgety one. Like constrained excitement--And with Cisco’s genius mind...That could be dangerous.

 

“Okay, so don’t freak,” Cisco said, “don’t worry about spiders or moths or even about eating quickly, because I have hot plates.”

 

Caitlin pulled her hand away and took several cautious steps back, “Spiders? _Moths?_ ”

 

Cisco shooed his hands, “No moths, I said! Just come here.”

 

She followed him to a room next to the kitchen that’s always been locked. She never even knew it existed until he opened the door. He lead her out to a screen door, that lead out to a small patio.

 

“Wait...We’re eating outside?? It’s pitch black.”

 

“Yeah I took that into consideration,” he reassured her, and then slid the screen open and flicked a switch on the wall.

 

The entire deck lit up like a christmas tree.

 

Caitlin blinked. Two chairs and a table set fancily with candles and a dinner steaming on top of it. It was surrounded by complex mosquito netting, so, clearly they wouldn’t be disturbed by the moths and spiders Cisco told her not to worry about. 

 

And then the lights--The fairy lights strung from all over, illuminating the entire place.

 

“What is this?” She wondered aloud.

 

Cisco smiled bashfully, serene for the first time since she arrived. “Just a little something different,” he repeated, like that first time.

 

She sat down and looked at the food on the table. It was good, battered chicken and rice, cooked with all of Cisco’s signature tricks.

 

Caitlin glanced up from her plate to see Cisco. His face lit up in a gentle glow from the flickering flames swaying in the night breeze.

 

“Relax,” he said, reaching forward to tug at a piece of her hair. “I can hear you thinking from over here.” He pointed his knife at her with a smirk, “Eat your chicken.”

 

Caitlin moved the food around the plate before scooping up a large forkful of rice. It was delicious. She made a little satisfied noise, and Cisco laughed.

 

 _Relax_ , he had told her. So she did. It was hard not to, with the food and the ambiance, and of course Cisco’s company. One of her favourite things in the world.

 

An hour later, Caitlin was slumped back in her chair, rambling about something Ralph said this morning that got on her nerves. She was beyond tired, exhausted really, and it made her feel near delirious. It was so late at night, and she’s been up since six in the morning. She felt almost tipsy, and it had nothing to do with the single glass of wine accompanied with their meal. It was just Cisco who got her like that. Giddy and unreserved. She had scooted her chair around the other side of the table so that she could curl up against him, giggle into his chest as he rubbed her back lazily.

 

“Tell me a secret,” Cisco said suddenly, pulling away from her.

 

Caitlin gave him a weird look, “What is this? A high school sleepover?”

 

“Well—You are sleeping over,” he pointed out, “And I bet you ten bucks you never had a sleepover until college.”

 

Caitlin made a mock angry face. “Are you trying to tell me you think I was a loser and had no friends?”

 

Cisco laughed, “No. I know your mom, remember. She seems like a 'house rules' kinda woman. Too busy to bother supervising twelve girls in her home at night.”

 

Caitlin snorted, “Yeah, you’re right.”

 

“So?” Cisco tapped her shoulder, “Give me a secret.”

 

“Fine.” Caitlin mulled it over in her head, scanning her list of private thoughts.

 

There wasn’t much Cisco didn’t already know.

 

He _was_ her secret keeper. She trusted him with her secrets more than she did herself.

 

And, when it mattered the most, and she had the biggest secret of all, when she was terrified of turning into a different person, he was the one who she told.

 

She looked at him, how he twitched a brow in return, waiting patiently for her to respond.

 

She could tell him what’s been on her mind. But she wasn’t quite sure it was a secret.

 

Nowadays, Caitlin knew exactly why she treasured her moments with Cisco so dearly. It was the same reason why her stomach had butterflies when Cisco walked her out onto his deck.

 

Why she felt so crushed at not getting to mess around with him in the kitchen.

 

The thing was, she knew him, and he knew her.

 

And he was the same way.

 

It’s funny because for all that it was new, it’s still partly same as ever before.

 

It wasn’t a secret. Their feelings for each other. It went without saying. In fact, it was better left unsaid.

 

So she decided on something else.

 

She glanced up at him again, “I was angry you made this without me at first." She gestured at their abandoned plates.  "I don’t care anymore, but I really like the time spent with you making things and I felt left out.”

 

Cisco gave her a sympathetic smile. “Yeah, I figured. I promise next time will be back to normal.”

 

Caitlin nodded, her eyes getting droopy.

 

“But, can I show you why I did this in the first place?”

 

Caitlin sat up straighter, interested. “Sure, it was 'something different' you said.”

 

His eyes locked into hers, and the look he gave her was intense. “Obviously I had a reason though, Cait.”

 

Caitlin swallowed. “What was the reason?”

 

Cisco glanced at his watch, then pushed back his chair and stood up.

 

“You really don’t know?” He teased, and Caitlin shook her head cluelessly.

 

“Okay give me a minute.”

 

He picked up their finished plates and left her alone outside. Caitlin began to feel the chill of the night. She rubbed at her eyes and felt immensely glad that tomorrow was a Saturday. She strained her ears to hear Cisco puttering around in the kitchen, but it didn’t take too long for her to wonder because he busted through the mosquito netting with a beautiful blue plate with a small cake topped with an enormous sparkler.

 

He placed the dessert in front of her with a wicked smile and whispered, “Make a wish.”

 

She looked down at the candle making firecracker noises in front of her and nearly burst into tears.

 

Cisco made her father’s lava cake.

 

She closed her eyes to please Cisco, but really all she was doing was gathering her thoughts.

 

Suddenly it all made sense.

 

She opened her eyes to see him looking at her with a soft expression.

 

They both watched silently as the sparkler fizzled its way down the candle.

 

 “ _Cisco,"_   She breathed.

 

It wasn’t that she forgot it was her birthday. It was just...She didn’t realize this was what this was. Her mind didn’t work like his. You woke up to a birthday. Her birthday was tomorrow. That information was there somewhere in the back of her mind, buried behind her excitement and then disappointment and then curiosity about this odd C&CCC.

 

She’s sure Iris will give her a hug in the morning and Barry will sing to her in his nice voice while she blushes in embarrassment and even Harry will probably send a birthday message cube from Earth 2.

But that feels like light years away. Right now it’s just Cisco and a sparkling cake. And that’s why he did this. He wanted to be the first one. He wanted to be with her when she turned 30, just them two, together. Intimate and alone and _special_.

 

She brushed away her tears hastily and let out a choked laugh. 

 

It was the cake.

 

It was Cisco.

 

It was Cisco making her a cake. _This_ cake. _Her_ cake. For her. Now, at—She checked her watch—Exactly midnight. 12 AM on the day she was born.

 

She felt like Sam in Sixteen Candles. Except she was thirty and the man across from her was no Jake Ryan.

 

They were sitting outside on Cisco’s tiny back patio that only barely just fit their two chairs and table. Crickets were chirping incessantly and moths must be fluttering over their heads above the mosquito net, but Caitlin refused to look. It didn't matter. The amber fairy lights Cisco hung up (and most probably made himself) were glittering around them, and if Caitlin squinted, she could imagine them as true little human creatures with wings, fluttering about and creating the sparks she felt crackling like a fire between them. But there were no fairies. No magic. Just her, shivering in her old oversized grey sweatshirt with the sleeves rolled to her elbows, frizzy hair wild and makeup free. And him. Looking at her like she hung the moon.

 

No--Not Jake Ryan. Cisco Ramon. He was so much better.

 

This man actually loved her. And she loved him back.

 

She picked up her fork and broke into the lava cake. She let her spongy cake soak up in the gooey chocolate before taking a bite. She giggled, she couldn’t help herself--He used her father’s recipe and it tasted like her childhood.

Cisco’s nervous smile was contagious, and Caitlin returned it when he asked if he done her cake justice. She simply took another big bite. What she loved about her lava cake was its decadence. It was rich with chocolate, _too_ rich and although it was her favourite, it really was an indulgence.

 

Just as she realized she would need it, Cisco got up and came back with a glass of water for her and a plate of his own.

 

“I love you,” slipped out of her mouth after she downed half the glass in one go.

 

Cisco’s fork froze between his lips, and he removed it slowly, brown crumbs still stuck to the edges as he put it on his napkin.

 

It didn’t sound like _that_. It was because she was thirsty and it was a joke. But he also must’ve known the truth behind them. How easy those words tumbled out of her mouth.

 

Caitlin tracked him with her eyes as he leaned his head against his hand on the table with a pleased sigh. He reached with his other to stretch across and brushed her cheek with the pad of his thumb.

 

She let go of her own fork loosely, letting it clatter. Her lashes fluttered involuntarily against his touch and she drew in her breath. He took her hand and flattened it against the table, his hand on top of hers.

 

“Happy birthday, Caitlin.”

 

“I love you,” she said again. This one wasn’t a joke.


End file.
